A. Field of Invention
The present invention is related to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to a method of providing information relating to the radio channel data rate to the wireless multimedia application client and/or a multimedia server. It is particularly useful in customizing the type of data made available to a wireless user based on the available data channel data rate to thereby enhance the quality of the data service as well as the wireless user's experience.
B. Description of Related Art
In existing CDMA wireless networks, client programs (e.g., streaming multimedia, web browsing, MMS, digital imaging, J2ME) on mobile wireless devices do not have any information about the current data rate provided by the RF (radio frequency) channel on the radio network. The client may attempt to use the highest data rate possible, even if it exceeds the RF data channel that has been provisioned for the present data session. Some client applications, such as FTP (file transfer protocol) and web browsing using http (hypertext transfer protocol), may benefit from data rate throttling since they use IP Transmission Control Protocol, which adjusts the server transmission rate to the mobile device based on acknowledgement messages.
Streaming multimedia servers employ both fixed rate streaming and variable bit rate streaming. With fixed rate streaming, the server will attempt to send the data at a predetermined fixed rate. This may underutilize the current network capabilities or exceed the current network capabilities. Variable bit rate streaming first tries to send as much data as possible, and continues to do so until it receives data flow messages from the client. The client monitors the data and determines if the server should increase its transmission data rate or slow down the transmission data rate. The client may then send a message to the server to take the appropriate action (speed up or slow down). The multimedia server will use this information to speed up the data rate or slow down the data rate. Due to long client-server messaging delays and unpredictable mismatches between server transmission rates and available radio network capacity, these prior art data rate control mechanisms often result in an inconsistent and dissatisfying multimedia experience for the user.
Even if a radio network has some type of Quality of Service (QoS), the problem still arises that the application does not know what the QoS capabilities of the radio are, or how to adjust the application to best utilize the current QoS. Consequently, a method of providing data over a wireless connection that overcomes the current limitations is needed.